Variable naming confusion

Bob Gustafson bobgus at rcn.com
Sun Sep 19 05:59:59 UTC 2004


To me, there is a lot of confusion in the naming and choice of values of 
the SELINUX booleans.  (Maybe I just don't have my head around the 
concepts.. - but I don't think I am alone)

For example:

The variable 'SELINUX' in the file /etc/selinux/config has the value 
choices 'enforcing' or 'permissive'.

The variable 'enforce' in the /boot/grub/grub.conf file has the value 
choices '=0' or '=1'

The variable shown by the command 'getenforce' is either 'Permissive' or 
'Enforcing' (note the initial capitalization)

When using the runtime command 'setenforce', the argument is either '0' 
or '1'

When using the script command 'selinuxenabled', the result is '0' if it 
IS enabled.

Suggestions

The variable 'SELINUX' is either 'enabled' or 'disabled'

The variable 'enforcing' is either 'enabled' or 'disabled'

(This can be named 'enforce' rather than 'enforcing' - would help when 
trying to remember whether the runtime command is 'setenforce' or 
'setenforcing')

The variable 'SELINUXTYPE' is 'strict', 'targeted', 'myownpolicy', 
'strangleddaemons', etc.




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